Cloud computing involves sharing of computing resources that are generally accessed via the Internet. In particular, the cloud computing infrastructure allows users, such as individuals and/or enterprises, to access a shared pool of computing resources, such as servers, storage devices, networks, applications, and/or other computing based services. By doing so, users are able to access computing resources located at remote locations in an “on demand” fashion in order to perform a variety computing functions that include storing and/or processing computing data. For enterprise and other organizational users, cloud computing provides flexibility in accessing cloud computing resources without accruing excessive up-front costs, such as purchasing network equipment and/or investing time in establishing a private network infrastructure. Instead, by utilizing cloud computing resources, users are able redirect their resources to focus on core enterprise functions.
In today's communication networks, examples of cloud computing services that a user may utilize include software as a service (SaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) technologies. SaaS is a delivery model that provides software as a service, rather than as an end product. Instead of utilizing a local network or individual software installations, software is typically licensed on a subscription basis, hosted on a remote machine, and accessed as needed. For example, users are generally able to access a variety of enterprise and/or information technology (IT) related software via a web browser. PaaS acts an extension of SaaS that goes beyond providing software services by offering customizability and expandability features to meet a user's needs. For example, PaaS can provide a cloud-based developmental platform for users to develop, modify, manage and/or customize applications and/or automate enterprise operations—without maintaining network infrastructure and/or allocating computing resources normally associated with these functions.
Within the context of automating enterprise, IT, and/or other organization-related functions (e.g., human resources (HR)), PaaS often provides users an array of tools to implement complex behaviors, such as enterprise rules, scheduled jobs, events, and scripts, to build automated processes and to integrate with third party systems. Although the tools for PaaS generally offer users a rich set of facilities for building automated processes for various enterprise, IT, and/or other organization-related functions, users typically implement custom scripts to perform the automated process. Requiring customized script to build automated processes may pose a challenge when attempting to address different layers of complexity (e.g., providing domain-appropriate building blocks), code reuse (e.g., having defined application program interface (API) semantics), and/or codeless development. As such, continually improving the technology of developmental platforms that simplify the process for a user to design, run, and manage automated processes remains valuable in enhancing clouding computing services.
Achieving the correct balance between cloud-based resources and private network infrastructure devices remains a dynamic problem for some of today's enterprises. Some capabilities may only be able to function on a private network because access to resources required to perform that function may not be available on the cloud or may not accessed from the cloud because of security reasons or other factors. Disclosed embodiments address the problems mentioned above by describing an automated process, referred to as flow plans or task flows, that includes a plurality of operations and a determination of where to execute different operations to achieve a more optimal overall result. In particular, this disclosure addresses techniques and capabilities to dynamically allocate portions of the overall task flow to the appropriate run-time execution environment in either a cloud-based environment or an environment provided by private network infrastructure.